(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention belongs to the domain of orthodontics. The invention relates to a bracket for attaching an arch wire to a tooth, wherein the bracket comprises:                a dental plate with a back and a front, wherein the back is intended to be attached to a tooth by means of an adhesive connection and        an arch wire for attaching the arch wire to the bracket, wherein the arch wire holder is fitted at the front of the dental plate.        
(2) Description of Related Art
An arch wire is an arch-shaped wire which is placed on the outside along the tooth arch of the lower jaw or upper jaw, including in the case of orthodontic corrections. The arch wire is in this case attached to the teeth by so-called brackets. A bracket is generally constructed of a dental plate which is attached to a tooth by means of an adhesive connection. Mortars developed specifically for orthodontics or dental surgery are normally used for the adhesive connection. The dental plate is fitted with a holder with which the arch wire can be attached to the bracket. The way it is done is that the bracket is first attached to the teeth and then the arch wire is ligated, in other words fixed to the bracket. In so doing an effort is normally made to have the arch wire running as straight as possible—a so-called straight arch wire—this means that though the arch wire runs, just like the tooth arch, along an arch shape (for example more or less U-shaped), there has been no additional bending in respect of said arch shape, at any rate it is attempted as far as possible to avoid said additional bending in respect of the arch shape. However, practice shows that the brackets will not all be well aligned in respect of the arch wire, or else that in the course of the orthodontic treatment one or more brackets need to be adjusted in respect of the arch wire in order to exert a certain force on a tooth. In order to make this possible, there are substantially two solutions: the bracket is moved and/or the arch wire is additionally bent.
The disadvantage of moving the bracket is that it needs to be detached from the tooth and fixed to the tooth again, which is work-intensive. The additional bending of the arch wire is also work-intensive and, furthermore, is a task of precision. During additional bending of the arch wire there is, moreover, often a risk that, after additional bending in a particular zone of the arch wire, the arch wire also needs to be put back precisely into shape in other zones.